1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to packaging machines for forming, filling and sealing flexible pouches and, more particularly, to an improved high speed packaging machine that approximately doubles the production rate of existing machines.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Because of the technical advances in film pouch forming, filling and sealing machines, more and more food and related products, in various states are being packaged in flexible film pouches for ease in shipping, handling and dispensing of such products at a point of use. Known machines to form, fill and seal such pouches usually utilize continuous rolls of heat sealable plastic film, and pouches are generally horizontally or vertically formed in continuous strips from the rolls of plastic film, filled with product, sealed, and then cut off.
To form pouches on these known form, fill and seal packaging machines, side seals or seams are normally formed between front and back films by heated side-seal forming means and the machine indexed so that cross-seal forming means form the bottom seals or seams. These three-sided pouches are then filled with product and the machine indexed to forward the filled pouches.
The same cross seal forming means is then utilized to form the top seam or seams on the filled pouches. At the same time, it forms the bottom seam or seams on the next partially formed but still empty pouches. The formed pouches are then severed from the moving streams of front and back heat sealable films and discharged from the machine. The machine is again indexed and the cycle continues.
The side seams or seals of the pouches are normally formed at one station by side seal forming means, while the cross seams or seals are formed at a second station by reciprocating or rotary front and back seal bars which come together to join front and back rolls of material by heat and pressure. The combination of heat and pressure at both stations form cross and side seals between the films to create the various pouch seams.
The typical form, fill and seal packaging machine is capable of concurrently forming a linear array of side by side pouches across the width of the machine. The number of side by side pouches concurrently formed can vary from a single pouch, when large, wide pouches are being formed, up to a large number of narrow pouches, depending on the limits of the machine size and material(s) being used. The various means to cut and form such pouches usually extend across the width of the material being formed, filled and sealed in the machine.
The final size of pouches formed on a pouch packaging machine are usually determined by the amount and type of contents to be held in the pouches and how the contents will be dispensed from the pouches. Thus, the geometry of a pouch is highly dependent upon what the pouch will ultimately contain, as well as how and where its contents are to be dispensed.
The known pouch packaging machines have numerous drawbacks or problems, including, but not limited to, cost to produce and speed of operation. Such known pouch packaging machines use pull wheels to index the pouches being formed, and such machines are limited in speed because of slippage of the pull wheels due to wear and the need to start and stop the machine during the various operations performed therein.
Although rotary devices are known to form side and cross seals, they normally contain rotating front and back seal bars that only touch the pouch making material momentarily. Therefore, these known rotary sealing devices do not always form dependable or integral seals. In particular, when packaging liquid products, rotary devices usually do not have enough xe2x80x9cdwellxe2x80x9d (time (time seals are pressed against material) to form an adequate and integral seal for liquid products.
Furthermore, with the current global concerns over environmental and safety issues, such as, sanitation in the delivery, storage and handling of food products, the need to cut down on waste and to save energy, a high speed machine having the same footprint as known machines offers a simple and elegant solution to many concerns.
Therefore, there exists a need in the packaging and dispensing art for a high speed, sanitary pouch packaging machine for use in packaging various liquid and dry products, which pouch packaging machine overcomes the known problems and can be used to produce high quality pouches containing dry or liquid products at high speed, without increasing the size of the machine.
Accordingly, it is a general object of the present invention to provide an improved form, fill and seal packaging machine. It is a more particular object of the present invention to provide a high speed form, fill and seal packaging machine. It is a further object of the present invention to provide a novel form, fill and seal packaging machine having a reciprocating and sliding, side-sealing system. It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a novel traveling cross-sealing means for a vertical form, fill and seal packaging machine. It is a still further object of the present invention to provide a novel rotary cross-seal system for a form, fill and seal packaging machine. It is yet a still further object of the present invention to provide a novel high speed vertical form, fill and seal packaging machine having a semi-continuous motion to form pouches in an expeditious manner. And, it is still a further object of the present invention to provide an improved form, fill and seal packaging machine having a dual product-filling system that works in combination with a reciprocating and slidable side-seal system and a rotary multi-jaw, cross-seal system to form pouches at a substantially increased production rate.
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention there is provided a high speed form, fill and seal packaging machine having a reciprocating and sliding side-seal jaw system, a multi-jaw traveling cross-seal system, a reciprocating and/or rotary cut-off knife system, and a multi-product pump pouch-filling system.